capital

As the leaders of the G-20 meet in Pittsburgh to discuss how to overhaul the global financial system, countries are calling for a wide spectrum of reforms. But a dramatic overhaul of how the global economy is run may be unlikely. Continue reading →

Editor’s note: All this week on the Business Desk, we are featuring contributions from economists, financial journalists, and other experts on the origins and impact of the financial crisis. Today, we asked several experts to weigh in on the single … Continue reading →

Question: I’d love to see a discussion on future growth in the American economy. As we’ve witnessed, the financial services sector clearly has a limits to what it can yield. What are the sectors that can keep America an economic … Continue reading →

Question: If you have not already done so, would you please explain the warrants that seem to be troubling the financial institutions at the moment? If you’ve already done so, I apologize for asking unnecessarily. Paul Solman: Hey, even if … Continue reading →

Question: I would like to ask you two simple (some might say “simple-minded”) questions, which may be variants of a single question. No one has yet given me a clear, straightforward answer. Perhaps you can and will. 1) Why does … Continue reading →

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke faced fresh questions from a House committee Thursday over the central bank’s role facilitating Bank of America’s purchase of Merrill Lynch. Experts discuss the acquisition, as well as the expanding power of the Federal Reserve, with Jeffrey Brown. Continue reading →

Question: What is the actual amount that banks have “lost” if banks still had to follow mark-to-market rules? My understanding is that our large banks would be insolvent by almost a trillion dollars if they had to declare what they … Continue reading →

On the day the government released better-than-expected stress test results for 19 major banks, a panel of economic analysts explain how the numbers were calculated and gauge the report’s impact on the nation’s financial health. Continue reading →

Question: What are the stress tests? And why are they being done? Paul Solman: A stress tests is simply an analysis of a bank’s balance sheet. To determine what? Whether the bank is viable as a business. Or likely to … Continue reading →